Ignition

Hi, new here as of today so hoping the forum is still active. I was given a 1980? Kz 550 from a family member. Did some work on it, it was taken apart when it was given to me so I’m currently trying to piece together what goes where. I have points and not sure where those plug into, and have new coils that I’m not sure where they plug into. Not sure if it’s a picture I’m looking for or an explanation but whatever you can do would be appreciated. Lmk if I did anything wrong with the post and such. Thanks!

Welcome! You should start by downloading the KZ550 service manual. You can find it here.

www.kzrider.com/filebase/category/14-kz550

hardrockminer wrote: Welcome! You should start by downloading the KZ550 service manual. You can find it here.

www.kzrider.com/filebase/category/14-kz550

Good find hardrock I searched last night for him without success

Also, look through this thread for a post by member loudhvx.

www.kzrider.com/forum/4-electrical/61224...0-lbs-boost?start=60

In his signature line there are a couple of links to his website where you will find a bucket load of useful and important information about the 550s, much of which is not in the fsm.

My wife has an '81 KZ550 LTD. We bought it from a Harley dealer in Prince George in very sad shape and rebuilt it one winter. I've ridden it a few times but it's a bit small for me at 6 ft 3 in. But it's a very perky machine and extremely miserly on gas.

Howdy again, I went ahead and downloaded the service manual. I got new coils installed, new points adjusted and set. Not getting any spark tho. I connected the wires from the points to the negative part of the coils, and then connected the wire that theoretically should connect to the engine off switch. Im hoping someone knows something obvious that im not seeing before i start to tear apart the wiring beyond what I have already done. Again thanks for all the helps guys its much appreciated with my kz experiences!

Welcome to Kzrider!

As Texas mentioned, there are a bunch of 550 links including 4 or 5 manuals. It wouldn't hurt to get all of them, even though some are supplements for later models (in case you decide to upgrade the charging system or ignition system etc).

Points are rare on the 550's since it was only on the 1980 Kz550A1 in the U.S., if that's where you are located. So most listings for coils will be for the electronic ignition models, which you really don't want to use with points.

To know if you have the correct coils, you can measure the resistance between the spade connectors. They should measure about 4 ohms. The electronic ignition coils will measure closer to 2.3 ohms (usually a bit higher like 2.6 or 2.7).

To eliminate a bunch of variables, you could just hot-wire the ignition. That would be done by removing the small yellow/red wires on the coils (that is/are the wire you mentioned that goes to the kill-switch), then connecting those two spade connections to the battery.

When you check for spark, it's best to pull all the plugs, leave them connected and laying on the engine. They need to stay in contact with the engine (or any other common piece of metal) to prevent potential damage to the coils. Each coil fires both of its plugs at the same time, and they need a complete path in order to work.

I threw up a reply quickly to this a few moments ago, i failed to put any info in based on what I have. I am located in the us, and from the looks of it my model is an ltd. I am getting 2 ohms on the coils that I bought (yes I was hasty and bought the first ones that popped up). You mentioned possible damage if the 2 ohms were used with points. I saw on the thread that texas posted that there were good 4 ohm coils for 37 bucks on z1 and i saw an electronic ignition plate on there for 160. What would be the pros and cons and would the reduced cost of just the coils outweigh the pros of the electronic ignition? Thanks for any input again im new to the wrenching scene overall and am just taking whatever knowledge I can collect with it. In the meantime ill begin to read over the newer model books along with a re read of the original one. I wont test the spark for now until I figure out what the story is with the coil/point relationship.

Well, that is going to depend on your personal tastes.

There are plenty of ups and downs for either type of ignition.
Points are much simpler to troubleshoot than an igniter, but require a lot more routine maintenance and a bit more fuss to set up.
Back in the day, everyone had to deal with points, and so it was a skill that everyone was forced to have. It's not exactly intuitive to set points exactly right, and there are many things that can go wrong, even basic things like screw heads getting stripped.
Basically, it takes a bit of experience to get really good at setting points. And nowadays, it's getting harder to find a decently manufactured set of points. Some of the stuff coming out of China is pure garbage, and can make a simple point replacement job a total headache. Once you get experience and know what you're doing, it is satisfying to get it set exactly right and have the motor purr nicely.

The majority of people probably like the set-it-and-forget-it benefits to electronic, but if it starts to fail, it's a bit more involved to troubleshoot properly... or expensive to replace everything.

The factory system is pretty good and probably a bit more reliable than an aftermarket ignition, like the Dyna S. If your motor uses a 1-phase charging system (rather than 3-phase) you will probably want to stick with a factory system.

A Dyna S system has the pickups and igniter all in one unit and will come with it's own rotor. The downside is that it will require 3 or 4 ohm coils. The Dyna S uses a lot more power than the factory system. The Dyna S will probably be cheaper than a Kawasaki system, but if you require a charging system upgrade, it will get a little more expensive. I don't expect you will absolutely need a charging upgrade, but it's a small possibility to be aware of.

The factory system requires the 2.3 ohm coils (which you probably already have) plus a timing plate with a set of pickups, a reluctor-rotor in place of the points-cam, and an igniter. The igniter might be expensive to get. Years ago it was relatively cheap and easy to make an igniter, but the correct parts to easily make one are getting harder to find.

Alright I just want to make sure I have this correct.

Points = 4 ohm coil
Dyna = 4 ohm coil
factory electronic = 2.3 ohm coils
I currently have points and 2 ohm coils, which I currently believe to be wrong from what I have read. Ill probably stick with the points and go with 4 ohm coils as long as I can find the listing (ive searched but no luck yet).

Edit - Found a set of 4 ohm coils on ebay for $40, not sure if the best decision to purchase but wouldn't see the harm, also what causes the 2 ohms not to work with the points? Just a curiosity question. Thanks so much for the time you all put into the responses btw

Dyna S can use 3, 4, or 5 ohm coils. The actual limit set by Dyna is that the minimum resistance allowed is 3 ohms.

4 ohms is good for points and gives the option of a Dyna S.

I've used some cheap 2.3 ohm coils from ebay and have had good luck with them. I've also used cheap 4 ohm (Emgo?) and have had them work fine too.

As you lower the resistance of the coil, you increase the current. This increases wear on the points which shortens life and increases maintenance required on the points.
In addition to that, the dwell used with points is longer than that used with the electronic ignition so a 2 ohm coil will run hotter at idle than a 4 ohm coil. This could possibly shorten the overall life of the coil. But a good coil can last 40 years, so even if it cuts the life in half it's still doing pretty good.

None of these things cause immediate failure, so you can probably run the 2.3 ohm coils in the short term. If you do, you want to minimize the idling time.

Another thing you can do is add a ballast resistor in series with the coil. That will reduce the current but then you are not getting the full power of the coil for spark. This would also be a temporary makeshift solution just to get rolling.

Awesome, so Ill be able to troubleshoot with the coils I have and see what I can do to get a spark at all, then Ill check into purchasing the proper coils for the points. Ill throw an update in here once I see whats up with it.